Destiny 2 Monument of Triumph Catalysts: Is It 25 or 26?
In the Monument of Triumph update, Bungie added catalysts for every single Exotic weapon in the game that at that point was currently missing one, which included a whopping 26 new catalysts, and now that I have collected and finished every single one of them, today we are going over exactly what each of them are and whether you should bother finishing them because they may or may not make the weapon they’re attached to hard-meta, looking at you One Thousand Voices, and furthermore, 12 existing catalysts that only provided stat boosts, such as on weapons like Hard Light, Crimson or Riskrunner had legendary perks added to them as well, also which we will be covering, enjoy!
You opened three catalyst guides and got three different numbers. One says 25, another says 26, a third says 29. Farming the wrong list wastes hours on a chase that no longer has an end date, and half the guides still point you at menus Bungie deleted. This is the Destiny 2 Monument of Triumph catalysts breakdown, checked against what Bungie actually published.
Table of Contents
What Monument of Triumph changed about catalysts
Why the catalyst count changes depending on the guide
How catalysts work after Update 9.7.0
The three drop paths for new catalysts
The nine reworked stat-only catalysts
Catalysts Bungie previewed before launch
Which catalysts to chase first
Claims we could not verify
How to track what you are still missing
Key takeaways
FAQ
What Monument of Triumph Changed About Catalysts
Monument of Triumph shipped as Update 9.7.0 on June 9, 2026, and Bungie has confirmed that Destiny 2 will no longer receive planned live-service content updates, though hotfixes for game health and stability remain possible. That framing matters for catalysts more than for almost any other system in the game, and it sits alongside the wider changes covered in our Monument of Triumph update guide.
Before this update, catalysts arrived in trickles. A handful each season, a few Exotics permanently left out, and a running community joke about which weapon would still be waiting a year later. Monument of Triumph closed that gap in one pass.
The Sandbox team's stated goal was that no Exotic should be left behind. They also picked existing Legendary perks that fit each weapon's identity rather than inventing new effects, which is why so many of the new catalysts read like perks you already recognise from Legendary rolls.
A catalyst occupies its own socket on the weapon, separate from the Masterwork track.
Why the Catalyst Count Changes Depending on the Guide
This is the first thing to sort out, because every downstream list depends on it.
Bungie's own pre-launch developer post states the numbers plainly. In the Weapons, Artifacts, and Focusing preview published on May 29, 2026 and mirrored by the Shattered Vault community knowledge base, the Sandbox team wrote that the update adds 25 catalysts to weapons that did not have one already, plus nine perks added to existing catalysts that previously granted only weapon stats.
After launch, community trackers counting weapons in the API and in Collections landed on 26 rather than 25. A third figure, 29, circulated in at least one large outlet. Nobody has published a reconciliation.
Here is our read on it. Bungie's 25 is the only figure with an official source behind it, so we treat it as the baseline. The community's 26 is plausible and may reflect a weapon Bungie counted differently, an item that shipped slightly after the preview was written, or a catalyst variant being tallied separately. The 29 figure has no corroboration we could find and we would not plan a farm around it.
What none of the counts change is the practical outcome. Bungie's stated goal was that no Exotic should be left without a catalyst, and community tracking since launch indicates that is where the game landed, so the useful question is not how many exist but which ones you personally still need.
The count dispute also shows up in third-party databases in a way worth knowing about. The light.gg new catalysts filter for Monument of Triumph returns only six entries, not 25 or 26.
That is not a contradiction of the other counts. It reflects that most of the update's catalysts were attached to Exotics that already existed in the database, so they register as changed items rather than new ones. Only genuinely new catalyst items show up in that view.
How Catalysts Work After Update 9.7.0
The underlying mechanic did not change, but the menus around it did, and that is where older guides go wrong.
A catalyst is a two-step item. First you acquire it, which is usually a random drop from a specific activity. Then you complete its objective, which is often several hundred defeats with the weapon equipped, sometimes with a condition attached like precision hits or a specific element.
Only after the objective is finished does the catalyst's benefit turn on, and at that point the weapon becomes Masterworked. Acquiring a catalyst and never touching the objective leaves you with nothing.
Two navigation changes from 9.7.0 break the instructions in most pre-June guides:
The Legends node is gone. Exotic missions, raids, and dungeons that used to live there launch from the Pinnacle Ops node or the new Raids and Dungeons node instead. Any guide telling you to open Legends is out of date.
Nightfall and legacy Vanguard Ops nodes are deprecated. Those activities now sit inside the Fireteam Ops hub, and legacy Crucible nodes moved into Crucible Ops with featured modes on rotation. Catalyst sources that historically read "Nightfall" have been absorbed into the Ops structure.
The Shattered Vault knowledge base makes the same point about legacy weapons, noting that older source paths referencing Nightfall or retired reward passes have most likely been folded into Ops activities. If a catalyst source in an old table names a menu that no longer exists, the activity itself usually still exists somewhere in the new structure.
You can also check any catalyst's source in game rather than trusting a table. Open Collections, then the Patterns and Catalysts tab, and inspect the entry. Unearned catalysts display their source location.
The Three Drop Paths for New Catalysts
Community tracking since launch has settled on a three-track split, and it holds up well enough to plan around, though Bungie has not published a formal breakdown of which weapon sits in which bucket. Most guides describe only the first two.
Ritual playlists and Exotic Orders
Catalysts for Exotics that come from random drops, quests, or the Exotic Archive appear to sit in the general reward pool. In practice that means Fireteam Ops, Crucible Ops, and Gambit completions, plus Exotic Order turn-ins at the Seasonal Hub. This is the largest of the three groups.
The efficient approach here is boring but correct: pick the ritual playlist you would run anyway and stay in it. Rotating between activities every few clears because a catalyst did not drop resets nothing and costs you time. Random is random. If Crucible is your pick, our Crucible Ops guide covers which modes clear fastest.
Vendor purchases are also part of the picture now. Bungie confirmed in the same developer post that Xûr's inventory was updated with new catalysts added, alongside a restored reputation rank reward track. Checking his stock is a cheap weekly habit that costs you nothing if he has nothing you need. Quest-acquired Exotics sit in this same general pool, so a weapon like the one covered in our Khvostov Exotic guide is worth equipping while you run rituals.
Raid and dungeon exclusives
Catalysts for Exotics that originally dropped from a raid or a dungeon stayed put. Community reporting places Wish-Ender's catalyst in Shattered Throne and Euphony's in Salvation's Edge, matching each weapon's origin activity, and the same logic appears to hold across the endgame Exotics. Community counts put this group at roughly eight weapons, spanning raids and dungeons including the encounters in our Equilibrium dungeon walkthrough.
These are the real time investment. There is no shortcut and no vendor path, and running the encounter repeatedly is the entire strategy. If you are farming a dungeon anyway, our Grasp of Avarice loot table shows what else the run pays out.
Quest and mission progression
The third group is the one most catalyst lists leave out, and it is not a random drop at all. Some catalysts are awarded as fixed steps in a questline, which means no farming and no RNG, but also no way to skip ahead. Exotic mission weapons behave the same way, as our Dead Messenger acquisition guide sets out.
The largest example is Cull's Shadow, the Exotic Fusion Rifle hidden in the update. Its four catalysts, community-documented as the Soulfire traits Succor, Rancor, Zeal, and Skewer, are awarded across the three-part Oblation mission chain on the Moon rather than dropping from anything. Each mission unlocks the next, so the order is fixed. Reports differ on exactly which catalyst comes from which mission in the chain, but they agree that completing all three awards all four.
The other two Exotics added in this update, Turncoat and Fafnir, also have progression-gated catalysts rather than random ones. The Claims We Could Not Verify section below explains why we would not trust the specific unlock thresholds being quoted for either.
Roughly eight catalysts stayed locked to their original raid or dungeon, with no vendor alternative.
The Nine Reworked Stat-Only Catalysts
Separate from the new catalysts, nine older ones that previously granted only stat bonuses now carry an actual perk. Bungie gave two examples in the preview: Crimson received To the Pain, and Merciless received Heal Clip.
The important detail for returning players is that this is retroactive. If you Masterworked one of these weapons years ago, the perk applies the moment you log in. There is nothing to re-farm.
Bungie did not publish the full list of nine, and we could not assemble a reliable one. Only three of the nine hold up under cross-checking:
Crimson: To the Pain, confirmed by Bungie.
Merciless: Heal Clip, confirmed by Bungie.
Riskrunner: Chain Reaction, reported consistently across independent post-launch coverage.
Skyburner's Oath gaining Incandescent and Sunshot gaining Loose Change are each reported in more than one place and look sound, but we would treat them as likely rather than settled.
The remaining entries we found circulating trace back to a single guide, and that guide is demonstrably unreliable at this level of detail. It publishes the perk wording Bungie wrote for Crimson under a different weapon entirely. We are not repeating its roster here. Open the weapon in game and read the catalyst before building around it.
Several other existing catalysts were also retuned in the same patch without being part of the nine. Bungie's preview documents these individually:
Jade Rabbit: the catalyst still adds Stability, and a special reload now consumes all stacks of Fate of All Fools to grant a single Micro Missile round dealing bonus damage scaled to the stacks spent.
Vex Mythoclast: Calculated Balance can now be activated by sustained damage as well as kills, and gained a HUD buff.
Touch of Malice: Rapid Hit in the catalyst was replaced with Precision Instrument.
MIDA Multi-Tool: the catalyst's improved radar resolution now lingers for a few seconds after stowing the weapon instead of cutting out instantly.
Heirloom: Incandescent was added to the catalyst.
Hierarchy of Needs: increased hip fire accuracy was added to the catalyst's benefits.
Catalysts Bungie Previewed Before Launch
The Sandbox team held most of the new catalysts back as a surprise but named three ahead of time. These are the only new-catalyst perk assignments with an official source, so if you want to plan around something before verifying it in game, start here.
Chaperone: Triple Tap
Parasite: Envious Arsenal
Tarrabah: Ambitious Assassin
Parasite with Envious Arsenal is the standout of the three for endgame play, because it lets you build the magazine using other weapons during a damage rotation instead of stopping to reload a weapon with a famously small magazine.
Everything beyond these three, and beyond the reworked examples of Crimson and Merciless, comes from post-launch community documentation rather than Bungie. Those lists are broadly reliable and were assembled by people with the weapons in hand, but they are not official, and the disagreements between them are real rather than cosmetic.
Which Catalysts to Chase First
The chase has no deadline. Monument of Triumph content is permanent, so completionism is no longer a race. That changes the correct strategy: instead of clearing a checklist top to bottom, work in the order that pays you back soonest.
Our order of operations:
Start with Exotics already in your weekly rotation. A catalyst on a weapon you use three nights a week returns value immediately and the objective completes itself while you play. A catalyst on a weapon you have never equipped returns nothing.
Equip freshly dropped catalysts straight away. The objective is usually a defeat count. If the weapon is in your hands during content you were running regardless, the grind costs no dedicated time at all.
Take the ritual pool passively, everything else deliberately. The ritual group drops while you play normally. Raid, dungeon, and quest-locked catalysts need scheduled time, so batch those rather than trickling them.
Reconsider the weapons you wrote off. Update 9.7.0 also buffed Primary weapon damage against minor combatants and made anti-Champion effects intrinsic to weapon frames, so some Exotics are viable now for reasons unrelated to their catalyst. Our Destiny 2 PvE guide covers where those buffs matter most.
Leave collection-only catalysts for last. If a weapon will never leave your vault, its catalyst is a Triumph, not an upgrade. Nothing wrong with chasing it, but it should not block the ones that change how you play.
With no expiry on Monument of Triumph content, order the chase by payback rather than by checklist.
Claims We Could Not Verify
Gaming guides tend to state everything with equal confidence. These are the Monument of Triumph catalyst claims we found circulating that we could not stand behind, listed so you can treat them accordingly. For where we go to check this kind of thing, see our roundup of official Destiny 2 info sources.
A catalyst redemption item. The light.gg database contains an item called Catalyst Redemption Token attached to this release, which several guides have picked up as evidence of a token-based exchange system. The database itself flags the entry as a dummy item, and light.gg's own guidance is that items in that category are frequently junk data that was never intended to ship. We have found no confirmation that this token exists in game or does anything. Do not plan around it.
Specific unlock thresholds for Turncoat and Fafnir. Guides quote a rewards pass rank for the Turncoat catalyst and a kill count for Fafnir, but they do not agree with each other. We found the Turncoat threshold reported as both rank 70 and rank 90 by sources that were otherwise careful. Neither figure traces back to Bungie. Check the rewards pass track in game rather than planning an evening around a number from a guide.
Exact per-weapon perk assignments outside Bungie's five named examples. The community lists are useful and mostly agree with each other, but they were assembled at speed in the days after launch, and weapons with similar roles get their perks crossed in the summaries that copy from them.
The 29 catalyst figure. We could not find a second source for it or any explanation of how it was reached.
How to Track What You Are Still Missing
One quiet piece of good news in the support documentation: Bungie confirmed that the Destiny 2 API and the official Destiny Companion App will continue being available and supported after Update 9.7.0, and that developers can keep using the GitHub developer community for support.
That has a direct consequence for this chase. Third-party catalyst trackers are not going to break. Tools that read your Collections through the API can still show you exactly which catalysts you hold, which objectives are part-finished, and which you have never seen, and that will keep working for as long as the servers are on. Our Destiny Item Manager setup walkthrough covers the most widely used of them.
For per-catalyst source lookups, the Shattered Vault Exotic Catalysts guide maintains a searchable list updated for Monument of Triumph, with the caveat, stated on the page itself, that legacy source paths are still being reconciled against the new Ops structure. Treat any single entry as a strong lead rather than a guarantee, and confirm in Collections before you commit.
We checked the game's patch state while writing this. The most recent update was 9.7.0.4, deployed on July 28, 2026. Bungie published no patch notes for it, and the only change described in advance was a fix to expansion pricing display. Nothing announced since touches catalysts, so the state described above should still hold, but an undocumented hotfix is worth keeping in mind if something in game does not match.
Our final Destiny 2 patch history tracks what has shipped since launch.
Bungie confirmed continued API support, so tools that read your Collections will keep functioning.
Key Takeaways
Bungie confirmed 25 new catalysts plus nine perks added to older stat-only catalysts. Community counts say 26. Only the 25 figure has an official source.
Bungie aimed to leave no Exotic without a catalyst, so the useful question is which ones you are missing, not how many exist.
Catalysts are still two-step items. Acquiring one does nothing until you finish its objective.
Three drop paths: ritual playlists and Exotic Orders, original raid or dungeon activities, and fixed quest steps such as the Oblation chain.
The nine reworked catalysts apply retroactively. If the weapon is already Masterworked, the perk is already active.
The Legends node no longer exists. Any guide routing you through it predates the final update.
There is no deadline, so chase catalysts for weapons you actually use before chasing completion.
Third-party trackers keep working, because Bungie confirmed continued API and Companion App support.
FAQ
How many catalysts did Monument of Triumph add to Destiny 2?
Bungie confirmed 25 new catalysts for Exotics that did not previously have one, plus nine perks added to older catalysts that only granted stat bonuses. Community trackers counted 26 new catalysts after launch. The discrepancy has never been formally reconciled, but it does not change which weapons you need to farm.
Does every Exotic weapon in Destiny 2 have a catalyst now?
That was Bungie's stated goal for the update, and community tracking since launch reports no Exotic left without one. The Sandbox team selected existing Legendary perks that matched each weapon's identity rather than designing entirely new effects. Bungie has not published a per-weapon confirmation list.
Where do the new Monument of Triumph catalysts drop?
There are three paths. Most sit in the general reward pool from ritual playlists and Exotic Order turn-ins, and Xûr also stocks catalysts following the update. Raid and dungeon Exotics keep their catalysts in those original activities. A third group is awarded as fixed quest steps rather than dropping at all.
How do I get the Cull's Shadow catalysts?
Cull's Shadow has four catalysts, and none of them are random drops. They are awarded through the three-part Oblation mission chain on the Moon, where each mission unlocks the next. Completing the full chain awards all four, so there is nothing to farm once you finish it.
Do I need to re-farm the reworked catalysts?
No. The nine reworked catalysts apply retroactively. If you Masterworked one of those Exotics before the update, the new perk was active the first time you logged in afterwards, with no additional grind required.
Why do catalyst guides tell me to go to the Legends node?
Because they were written before June 2026. Bungie deprecated the Legends node in Update 9.7.0. Exotic missions, raids, and dungeons that used to launch from it now live in the Pinnacle Ops node or the new Raids and Dungeons node.
How do I check where a specific catalyst drops?
Open Collections and select the Patterns and Catalysts tab. Unearned catalysts show their source location in the entry. This reflects the current live state of the game, which makes it more reliable than any published table.
Is there a deadline to collect all the catalysts?
No. Monument of Triumph content is a permanent addition and will remain in the game indefinitely. You can work through catalysts at whatever pace suits you without losing access to anything.
Will catalyst tracking apps stop working now that updates have ended?
No. Bungie confirmed that the Destiny 2 API and the official Destiny Companion App remain available and supported after Update 9.7.0, so third-party tools that read your catalyst progress will continue to function.
Which Monument of Triumph catalysts should I farm first?
Start with Exotics you already use weekly, because the objective completes passively while you play. Handle ritual playlist catalysts as background progress, schedule raid or dungeon runs deliberately, and treat quest-locked catalysts like the Oblation chain as a single dedicated session.
What is the Catalyst Redemption Token?
It is an item present in third-party database listings for this release, flagged there as a dummy item. Items in that category are frequently data that was never meant to be visible and often does not correspond to anything in game. There is no confirmation it exists as a usable item.